Released on the 20th of June this year, OnePlus released their next flagship phone the OnePlus 5. I ordered and received this phone shortly after it’s release and after four months of use thought this was a good time to write a review.

This is a short review, touching on some key points and facts that you can read in a minute or two – if you want a full review hit Google.

Hardware wise the OnePlus 5 comes in a single form factor – there are no “Plus” or “XL” models. There are three colour options; Black, Gray and Gold.

The rear body is metal meaning no wireless charging.

The front has two capacitive buttons and a home button/fingerprint reader that is static like the iPhone 7.

The phone features a dual camera setup at the back allowing for good zoom and potrait mode photos.

The phone is charged using a USB-C charger, fast charging is provided using the OnePlus “Dash” charger.

It’s a dual SIM phone, you can load two SIM cards and calls/texts sent to both come through and you can decide which SIM to call/text from at the time of use. Only one SIM can be selected for mobile data.

The processor is a Snapdragon 835 and GPU is the Adreno 540 (Used in the flagships Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Google Pixel 2).

I opted for the top spec model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage costing me £499 at release making this hardware wise a higher spec phone than the current flagships Galaxy S8 and Pixel 2 – however my personal opinion is that 6GB of RAM is plenty therefore only opt for the 8GB/128GB model if you need the additional storage or are limited on options of preowned handsets.

These phones run a variant of Android titled OxygenOS which has a near stock experience with some welcome additions. Some examples of these are the ability to have on or off screen buttons, swap the “Back” and “Recent Apps” button, my favourite is customising what long holding on a button does (My screen locks when I hold the home button).

The downsides with these phones are their life cycle, less than six months after release it looks like OnePlus has stopped manufacturing and is focusing on their next phone. Also the OnePlus 5 has no water/dust resistance like the competition.

My personal opinion, this phone feels premium and provides a fast and smooth Android experience with lots of flexibility. Getting your hands on one may become difficult but I highly recommend this phone and have no intention on moving onto any other premium offerings this year.

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